Les vertus de l’excès : convivialité et gourmandise dans le Sud-Ouest aquitain (1700-1850)

Abstract

The cultural importance given to food in the French Southwest leads to a certain tolerance in the face of food excesses. This paper attempts to discover why and in what circumstances exceptional consumption is accepted, indeed sometimes even encouraged. Does this attitude indicate deeply rooted regional food habits or the mise-en-scène of a social hierarchy ? A popular image of abundance, not always well founded, has strong historical attachments to the Gascon table of the 18th century. The examination of menus, account books, and travel accounts, reveals some of the criteria upon which to evaluate real or imagined food excesses in this province : food expenses, the quantities of foods ordered, their quality, etc. An intense sociability of the table and consumption in accordance with one’s rank allowed for setting aside day-to-day moderation on the occasion of municipal banquets and family celebrations. For the elite, luxuries of the table were not perceived as an excess, but rather as an affirmation of wealth and power. Nevertheless, starting towards the middle of the 18th century, quantitative abuses were less frequently tolerated as notions of refinement and good taste replaced that of quantity as a new base for the development of a distinctive regional gastronomy. Conviviality and a level of gourmandise adapted to one’s social status provided a context in which the enthusiastic appreciation of fine food was not necessarily considered an excess.